National Library eBooks

The National Library of Australia's electronic books (eBooks) are available as free downloads.

Cook & Omai: The Cult of the South Seas

Cook & Omai cover image

Discover one man’s journey across half the world, from his home in Tahiti to London in the 1770s and then back again. This publication provides a key to understanding the significance of James Cook’s three Pacific voyages and the cultural milieu in which they occurred.

Cook & Omai 2.0 Mb pdf

Paradise Possessed: The Rex Nan Kivell Collection

Paradise Possessed cover image

This series of essays provides fascinating insights into the National Library of Australia’s extraordinary Rex Nan Kivell Collection, one of the world’s most remarkable and valuable library collections of historical artworks, books, maps and manuscripts. Contributors to the book include Sasha Grishin, Bernard Smith and John Thompson.

Paradise Possessed 10.0 Mb pdf

Changing Coastlines: Putting Australia on the World Map, 1493–1993

Changing Coastlines: Putting Australia on the Map cover image

Changing Coastlines examines Australia’s cartographic history. The publication reminds us of the importance of maps, not only as locators of places but also for what they tell us today about the perceptions of Australia in the minds of those who created and used them.

Changing Coastlines 3.6 Mb pdf

Gold Fever! Life on the Diggings, 1851–1855

Gold Fever: Life on the diggings 1851 ~ 1855 cover image

Gold Fever! tells the experiences of the men and women who flocked to the Australian goldfields in the early 1850s. The publication deals with the earliest phase of the Australian gold-rushes, beginning with Edward Hammond Hargraves’ discovery of gold near Bathurst, New South Wales, in February 1851. By 1855, at the end of the period treated in Gold Fever!, the eastern Australian colonies had been transformed by the search for gold.

Gold Fever 2.0 Mb pdf

Hurley's Australia: Myth, Dream, Reality

Hurley's Australia: Myth, Dream, Reality cover image

During the golden age of the 1950s, Frank Hurley (1885–1962)—photographer, film maker and adventurer—travelled across Australia, creating a visual archive of the nation’s vast landscape, modern cities, industrial strength and agricultural riches. This book contains a selection of Hurley’s Australian photography drawn from the extensive collection of his work held by the National Library of Australia.

Hurley's Australia 9.6 Mb pdf

The Dalton Journal: Two Whaling Voyages to the South Seas 1823-1829

The Dalton Journal: Two Whaling Voyages to the South Seas 1823-1829 cover image

The journal of Dr William Dalton (1802–1873) is a rare, British account of whaling activities in the South Seas. In 1986, Dr Niel Gunson generously donated Dalton’s original manuscript to the National Library of Australia. As the editor of this published edition, Gunson provides a careful assessment of the journal’s historical significance.

The Dalton Journal 10.6 Mb pdf

Augustus Earle: Travel Artist

Augustus Earle: Travel Artist cover image

Augustus Earle (1793–1838) was born to travel and to paint. Living in the era before photography, Earle was one of the world’s most irrepressible travel artists. His paintings are valuable both as works of art and as documentary records of historic and ethnographic significance. This publication gives an overview of some of Earle’s most significant works held by the National Library of Australia.

Augustus Earle: Travel Artist 19.9 Mb pdf

The World Upside Down: Australia 1788-1830

The World Upside Down: Australia 1788 - 1830 cover image

The World Upside Down: Australia 1788-1830 draws on the National Library of Australia’s collections to explore some of the many fascinating aspects of life and art in colonial Australia.

 

The World Upside Down 7.4 Mb pdf

Travellers Art

Travellers Art cover image

Travellers Art presents rare, late eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century drawings, watercolours, sketchbooks, diaries, hand-drawn maps, manuscripts and photographs, all of which were created while travelling. Selected from the National Library's collections for their first-hand immediacy and fidelity to the subject, they are the personal narratives of travelling artists, diarists and explorers.

Travellers Art 2.3 Mb pdf

Faces of Mandurama

Faces of Mandurama cover image

Taken over a period of possibly 20 years or so, the photographs in Faces of Mandurama provide a detailed portrait of an Australian country community. The images cover many different aspects of life during the 1890s and early 1900s, including sporting events, picnics, the mechanisation of farming, mining, civic life, education and the transition from horses and buggies to the motor car.

Faces of Mandurama 10.2 Mb pdf

Arcadian Quest: William Westall's Australian Sketches

Travellers Art cover

The William Westall images reproduced in this book represent a cross-section of the National Library of Australia's Westall collection of pencil and watercolour sketches and engravings. Also included are three oil paintings from the Ministry of Defence Art Collection, London. Unless stated otherwise, all images are by William Westall (1781—1850) and are from the National Library of Australia.

Arcadian Quest 8.2 Mb pdf

Nora Heysen

Travellers Art cover

Nora Heysen’s (1911–2003) life has been driven by an unwavering passion for art. This publication brings together Heysen’s work from her early years as a young 16-year-old art student in the 1920s, to the rare, masterly confidence of her later years. As Lou Klepac writes, ’what may appear as a simple still life is in fact a miraculous moment.’

Nora Heysen 5.6 Mb pdf

Ruth Park a Celebration

Ruth Park a Celebration cover image

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A Window in the Dark

A Window in the Dark cover image

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Australia's Timeless Gardens

Australia's Timeless Gardens cover image

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Eyes to the Future

Eyes to the Future cover image

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Facing Percy Grainger

Facing Percy Grainger cover image

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This Erant Lady

This Erant Lady cover image

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A Sporting Nation: Celebrating Australia's Sporting Life

A Sporting Nation cover image

Featuring, among others: Mina Wylie • Don Bradman, the 'Bodyline' Test series, Bill O'Reilly • Jack Brabham • Hubert Opperman • Alex Jesaulenko • Adrian Quist, Margaret Court • Phar Lap, the Melbourne Cup Bernard ('Midget') Farrelly • Em McQuillan, Vic Patrick • 'Gelignite' jack Murray • Melbourne Olympics 1956 and Sydney Olympics 2000

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